THE SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES

THE SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES on Netflix is the latest in a line of superb documentaries by MOVEGUIDE® Award winning and Oscar winning Co-Director Morgan Neville of 20 FEET FROM STARDOM and the movingly detailed WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?, a movie about TV icon Mr. Rogers’ life. THE SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES, is a beautiful, funny, touching, redemptive, extremely entertaining story of an eccentric baseball fanatic who owns some of the wackiest professional baseball teams in America, but there is brief foul language that warrants strong caution.

The movie focuses on Mike Veeck, the son of the legendary former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck. Mike reveals how he struggled to break out from his father’s shadow and find his own success in baseball.

Mike’s father, Bill, had famously staged some of the wildest stunts in major league baseball history during his ownership in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the most infamous being a “Disco Sucks” theme night that drew a madhouse crowd of 100,000 people to the ballpark. The price of admission was 99 cents and a disco album, which team employees gathered from attendees before tossing them into a giant trash bin and exploding them in the outfield, instigating total chaos from the fans.

There’s plenty of funny footage of these promotions, and they are highly enjoyable for viewers of all ages. Mike was hired by Bill and was labeled “The Owner’s Son,” which created a lot of pressure on him to prove his own worth to the White Sox. Left with no direction when his father sold the team in the early 1980s, Mile drifted into alcoholism until he met his wife, who saw that he had a highly inventive mind of his own and encouraged him to create his own baseball legacy.

Mike bought an independent pro baseball team called the Saint Paul Saints and created a nonstop array of wildly hilarious promotions to get fans in the stands. More importantly, he was known for signing players who had fallen out of favor in major league baseball or had their ballplaying dreams hindered by other factors. For example, one player was born without legs, but Mike still gave him a chance.

The most powerful story of these second chances comes from former superstar Darryl Strawberry, who ruined his career through a cocaine habit and had given up on life. Mike signed him, which began an improbable career and life rebound that took Darryl back to the majors, a World Series championship and a post-baseball career as a minister.

The movie’s other strong aspect comes in the recollections by Mike and his wife of their daughter, who had a rare disease that rendered her progressively blind as a child and eventually killed her in her twenties. Mike dropped everything to literally show her the world. He also took a second chance to be a better father to his son, whom Mike had largely neglected in his childhood.

THE SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES is a beautiful, funny, touching, extremely entertaining documentary. It’s filled with tales of redemption and the proof that dreams can come true, even when one has long felt that they have lost out on life. It’s also a wonderful and bittersweet look at parenting a child through grave illness, while keeping their spirits soaring.

The movie is rated TV-MA (the equivalent of an R) due to the fact that two “f” words are said, and the word “A-hole” is written on the screen briefly once. There are also frequent images of beer and casual drinking throughout the first half, but these are mitigated by the fact that Mike Veeck admits he became an alcoholic and was ruining his life until his wife offered him a new chance at life and sobriety.